Fear
I tried to get a shot of the whole coffee clutch of birds hanging out at the trendy new feeder and sitting around on the branches. I tried to make a blind for my camera, but every time it made even a focusing sound, most of them would flit away. Part of me wishes they would not fear me and would accept my gracious hospitality without anxiety. So we would just be able to enjoy each other. But another part of me knows that fear of man is what keeps them alive and safe. When a bear or gator looses its fear of man, it often becomes necessary to destroy it. Birds that loose their fear can become pests and despised. Love of the wildlife means we need to make sure they continue to fear us to a significant extent. It hit me that God probably doesn’t really want us to fear him, but he knows we must or face mortal danger. There is a tension and a sorrow in the distance caused by love.
posted by wingman at 12:52 PM
3 Comments:
well put, raiel
We're afrain when reality without warning is shown to be either more or other than we thought it was. Fear of the LORD is fear with the scary element deleted. So it is often accompanied by the reassuring, "Fear not," which doesn't result in the absence of fear, but rather, it's transformed into, "fear-of-the-Lord.
-eugene
That helps me, Rod. You can't really be scared by a movie you've already seen. And I don't fear the doc's needle as I know what it is and for and what to expect, but I don't like the prick and that's scary - because I DO know what to expect. But when, as you say, something is more or different than expected, there is fear of the unknown (which may be the only kind there is) even if that unknown is something wonderful. I'm remembering that some things I have been absolutely terrified by proved benign as the element I imagined that scared me didn't exist.
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